“I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines, that’s a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I’d say it’s very unfortunate,” Trump said while visiting a restaurant in Iowa. Pretti had a permit to carry, a right protected by the Second Amendment.

President Trump Departs White House For Iowa

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said, “you can’t have guns, you can’t walk in with guns.” (Image: Getty)

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump once again insisted that Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old VA nurse who was shot dead by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, shouldn’t have been armed with a handgun, remarks that could inflame tensions with gun rights advocates.

“I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines, that’s a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I’d say it’s very unfortunate,” Trump said while visiting a restaurant in Iowa. Pretti had a permit to carry, a right protected by the Second Amendment.

In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, the Department of Homeland Security posted an image of gun on a car seat, claiming he intended to “massacre law enforcement.” Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”

Kash Patel, the FBI director, said, “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple. You don’t have the right to break the law.”

 

A demonstrator holds an anti-ICE sign that reads "Abolish...

A demonstrator holds an anti-ICE sign that reads “Abolish ICE” (Image: Getty)

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said, “you can’t have guns, you can’t walk in with guns.” When questioned by a reporter about the Second Amendment, he repeated, “you can’t walk in with guns.”

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that “any gun owner knows” that carrying a gun raises “the assumption of risk and the risk of force being used against you,” during interactions with law enforcement.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed that Pretti held a valid permit to carry in public. The Trump administration has been struggling to defend ICE against widespread blacklash over the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, given the video footage of the shootings opposing the narrative of the administration.

 

The National Rifle Association, a gun rights advocacy group and a longtime supporter of Trump, has called for a full investigation into Pretti’s death and condemned “making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

“The FBI director needs to brush off that thing called the Constitution, because he clearly hasn’t read it,” National Association for Gun Rights President Dudley Brown told POLITICO. “I know of no more crucial place to carry a firearm for self-defense than a protest.”